


Heavy On Our Heels

by Branithar



Series: Grinding Our Gums Raw [2]
Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band), Waterparks (Band)
Genre: Amputation, Body Horror, Outer Space, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-06-17
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:21:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24768436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Branithar/pseuds/Branithar
Summary: While working on a space ship, Ashton, Luke and Geoff are captured and held hostage by pirates.
Series: Grinding Our Gums Raw [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789960
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Heavy On Our Heels

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to Forget Your Feet and Where They Fall.
> 
> I posted this early because the cops can't stop me.
> 
> Title is from No Parallels by Hands Like Houses.
> 
> I run tran5rightsos on Tumblr! Feel free to send asks about this or any of my other 5sos fics!
> 
> Comments are always welcome.

“Pass me that wrench?”

Luke handed Ashton the wrench, leaning in to see what he was doing. “Will that fix it?”

“Should do.” Ashton twirled the wrench in his hand. “You wanna switch it on for me?” 

Luke went to the console and pressed a few buttons. The band saw hummed to life, all trace of the rattling it had been making gone. 

“Is it fixed?” Geoff asked. 

Ashton nodded. “Looks like it. You wanna put some dranix through?” 

Geoff passed them a respirator each before heaving a lump of unrefined dranix onto the bench and pushing it into the saw. The machine easily cut through, tiny flecks of melting dranix glittering as they sprayed onto the bench. 

“Thank god,” Geoff exhaled as Luke powered the machine down, “You saved my life.”

Ashton smiled. “That’s my job.” 

“Can we go on lunch break now?” Luke asked as he removed his mask, careful to not disturb his carefully styled quiff, “We were supposed to do it before we came here.”

Before Ashton could reply, two people strode into the room pointing guns at the three of them. Ashton froze. _Pirates._ Why hadn’t an alarm gone off? This was supposed to be a secure vessel.

As one pirate holstered his gun to shut and lock the door, the other approached Luke. 

“Hands up.”

They all obeyed. 

“What do you want?” Luke demanded. 

The pirate raised his gun and slammed it against the side of Luke’s head. 

“ _Luke!_ ” Ashton yelped, watching his friend fall to his hands and knees. 

The other pirate came over to wrestle Luke down, cuffing his hands behind his back. 

“Sit,” the pirate with the gun, their captain Ashton guessed, commanded, gesturing from Ashton to a seat beside a wooden bench. 

Ashton allowed the other pirate to cuff his hand to one of the bench’s legs as the one with the gun secured Geoff and pulled out a handcom. Luke was roughly lifted from the ground and thrust onto the seat beside Ashton, the pirate then taking a seat opposite them and fidgeting suggestively with Geoff’s dranix cleavers. 

“Don’t try anything,” he threatened, pointing a cleaver at Ashton. 

Luke slumped against Ashton’s side, gasping. “A-Ash-”

Ashton reached up to touch the blood seeping through his hair. “He needs a medic,” he told the pirates, voice cracking a little, “His head’s hurt.” 

“Shut up,” the captain snapped, bringing the handcom to his face. “We have three hostages,” he announced, “If you don’t surrender, we’ll kill them all.” 

“We’ve already captured your crew,” came Captain Jones’ reply, “Surrender now and we’ll show mercy.” 

The captain put down the handcom. “I told them to surrender first,” he complained to the other pirate, “Show ‘em we’re serious, Votek. Kill the annoying one.” 

The pirate sitting at the bench swung the cleavers into the wooden surface and grabbed Luke’s shirt, pulling him to his feet. 

“No, no don’t kill him,” Ashton pleaded, grasping at Luke’s cuffs, “Give them a chance, please.” 

Luke didn’t struggle as Votek wrenched him out of Ashton’s grip and dragged him to the table saw. 

“No, please!” Ashton begged, “Kill me instead, kill me.” 

“Aw, that’s cute,” the captain cooed, “Don’t worry, you’re next anyway.” 

The blade on the saw bench whirred to life and Luke seemed to finally register what was happening. 

“A-Asht- Asht- Ash,” he stammered, struggling weakly in Votek’s grip. 

The captain stepped towards them. “We’re killing a hostage. This is your last chance to surrender before he dies.” 

“Surrender now and we will show mercy,” Captain Jones countered. 

“What’s your name, boy?” the pirate captain asked Luke, holding the handcom to him. 

“Ash. A-Ash-”

“Just fucking kill him,” the captain sighed. 

Ashton screamed as Votek forced Luke onto the bench and pushed his face into the saw. Luke’s brief scream was cut off as blood sprayed across the bench. When he stopped struggling, Votek released Luke and he slipped back, collapsing to the floor. His head hit the ground with a sickening crack. 

Ashton stared at the dark gash running up the left of Luke’s face, at the blood dripping down and soaking the hair on the side of his head, at the droplets glistening in his quiff, his insides feeling like they’d been crushed. 

Votek fell back into his seat at Ashton’s bench and said something that he didn’t register, drawing his attention back to the cleavers. Unthinking, he lurched forward to snatch one out of the table. Pulling his wrist as far out of the cuff as it could go, Ashton brought the cleaver down. He buried it deep in the wooden bench, but a small piece of skin kept his hand attached to his arm. Ashton wrenched his arm up and severed it, freeing himself. 

Votek had begun to stand, but Ashton managed to grab the other cleaver before he could react properly and swung it into his neck. Yanking it out, he stumbled to the captain and slashed his neck open too, watching him press his hand to the wound as he stumbled back. Geoff stuck out a leg to trip him, cringing as he collapsed against a machine, his neck snapping loudly. 

Panting, Ashton dropped to his knees and crawled to Luke’s side, unable to make sense of the missing blue eye. It didn’t look real, as if someone had drawn over a photo of Luke or something. 

“A-” 

Luke’s voice was faint, but Ashton gasped as he realised that he was looking back up at him in shock, lower lip trembling as he tried to speak. 

Scrambling to the captain, Ashton snatched up the fallen handcom. “We need a medic,” he sobbed, “They- he can’t move, he’s bleeding, I need a medic.” 

A wave of nausea crashed over Ashton and he missed Jones’ reply, looking down and realising that the blood spattering onto the floor was coming from his wrist, from the strange, clean edge marking the end of his forearm. 

He didn’t have much time to feel sickened by what he’d done, by the hand still resting in the handcuff on the wooden bench, before he found his face pressed to the cold floor, eyes losing focus on Luke as dizziness distorted the edges of his vision and Geoff’s shouts faded.


End file.
